Zion National Park

Zion Table of Contents

• Zion maps
• Photographs
• Introduction
• Tours of Zion Canyon
• Overcrowding
• Regions of the park
• Zion trails
• Zion slot canyons
• Zion wildflowers
• Hotels near the park

Zion Maps

Zion National Park, Zion Canyon (overview), Zion Canyon (topo).

Photographs

Zion Canyon, Observation Point and vicinity, the Southeast, Kolob Reservoir area, wildflowers

All Zion National Park photographs.

Zion Weather

Local weather and climate.

Introduction

The main canyon in Zion is reached by a turning off state highway 9; the through road continues east via a dramatic tunnel into more open land en route to Mount Carmel Junction and onwards to Bryce Canyon National Park. There are few official trails in the southeast section of the park but all the land is scenic. The rock formations are subtly different; more varied and on a more intimate scale.

The Kolob Canyons of the northwest have a separate visitor center and a short scenic drive leading to a high viewpoint, unlike that in Zion Canyon which follows the river along the valley floor. This region is equally spectacular, on a slightly smaller scale. Again there are good hiking opportunities, and the region is much more tranquil and less-visited. Even less well known is the high country along the Kolob Reservoir Road, a land of forests, meadows, cliffs and more narrow ravines.

Zion Canyon Tours

Explore the national park, by tour bus and hiking.

Overcrowding

As with other Southwest national parks including Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, overcrowding is becoming a serious problem in Zion Canyon - the general solution is to reduce the traffic by closing some roads to private vehicles and using shuttle bus services to transport visitors. Even so, in all these parks it is only a tiny section that is usually visited and always there are vast areas of wilderness that may be explored in peace. The year 2000 saw introduction of such measures to Zion National Park and visitors now use free shuttle buses, starting from the town of Springdale or the main visitor center, where extra parking has been constructed.

Zion Fees

Entry for Zion National Park costs $35 per vehicle and $20 per person (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, etc) in 2024; these are the highest NPS fees, the same as other top locations like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.

Regions of Zion National Park

Hiking in Zion National Park

Zion has a good network of maintained trails, both long and short, and also many recognized routes along narrow canyons; some of these require ropes and technical expertise, but many can be seen, at least in part, by regular hiking. Featured trails are listed below.

Featured Zion Trails

Slot Canyons of Zion National Park

Zion Wildflowers

Hotels near Zion National Park

Main (south) entrance - Springdale (1 mile), Hurricane (24 miles), Washington (35 miles), St George (42 miles).

East entrance - Mount Carmel Junction (13 miles), Kanab (30 miles).

Kolob Canyons entrance - Cedar City (21 miles).